08-23-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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****** I dwell in Possibility. —Emily Dickenson The Interstate is not going away, and whatever approach is selected to improve the health of Savage Lake and the Gervais Lake Subwatershed will be a difficult one. But what are our options? To maintain the present course of inaction assures that Savage Lake will continue to get shallower and become even more overgrown with aquatic plants. Stopgap measures, such as applying herbicides to control such vegetation, may offer a respite, but they are treating the symptoms rather than the disease. Considering this lake’s historical and physical centrality within the community of Little Canada—and its visibility from the Interstate highway—maintaining the status quo is not a good option. I choose to dwell in another possibility. I believe the path towards ecological recovery of Savage Lake, as well as other parts of the Gervais Lake Subwatershed, begins with our choosing to rename the lake. A panel of citizens could be appointed by the Watershed District and the City to undertake the task of identifying a new name for this lake—a name that, while honoring the lake’s historical significance, also represents a positive and hopeful prospect for its future. Out of this process, I believe it’s possible that the City and Watershed District—and the citizens—can find common ground from which to rally around revitalization of this lake as symbolic of and a catalyst for renewed commitment to improving the watershed and community as a whole. I personally favor adopting the same name for the lake that the indigenous people had for it (or its translation), if that name can be determined. If not, I would like to see it named “Thunder Lake.” Little Canada has a sister city relationship with the town of Thunder Bay in Canada, and choosing to name the lake in a similar way would symbolically acknowledge that connection. There is at least one other lake in Minnesota named “Thunder Lake,” so a precedent has been set. We are near the 50th anniversary of the date when the construction of the Interstate highway was completed through Savage Lake. I dwell in a possibility that we, as a watershed and a community, might choose to mark this dubious milestone by dedicating new signs along adjacent roads that bear a new, more hopeful name for this lake. This action could also symbolically represent a new resolve to do whatever is possible to improve the wellbeing of the entire watershed. It would be a proud day for my place. ****** We grieve only what we know. —Aldo Leopold from A Sand County Almanac (1948)